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GILROY -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced the arrests of 103 individuals, the majority of whom are gang members with prior felony convictions, after an 18-month investigation by California Department of Justice agents.

The California DOJ agents, along with 150 law enforcement personnel from local, state and federal agencies, made the arrests over the last three days for crimes that included the sale of drugs, firearms, and stolen property and vehicles in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.

“After noticing an increase in crime, Gilroy officials asked for help in dismantling a gang network that had set up shop in their town,” Attorney General Harris said. “DOJ agents are uniquely suited to perform the undercover work vital to building complex, multi-jurisdictional cases like this one. This community is safer because of their hard work and their partnerships with federal and local law enforcement.”

As part of the operation, undercover Department of Justice agents purchased drugs and firearms, as well as stolen property and vehicles, from gang members and others with prior felony convictions.

To date, the operation has resulted in the seizure of more than 3 pounds of methamphetamine, 28.5 grams of heroin, 4 ounces of cocaine, 34 ecstasy tablets, 10 oxycontin pills, 44 firearms, 81 stolen vehicles and stolen property.

State charges include auto theft, possession of stolen property, gun charges, burglary, sales of narcotics (heroin, cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy), and gang enhancements. Some suspects are also being arrested on federal indictments.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Harris announced several gang takedowns in the Central Valley, including the arrest of 101 leaders and members of two transnational gangs operating violent criminal enterprises in Madera, Los Banos, Livingston, Merced, Atwater and Dos Palos. (http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2512&y=&m=)

Nuestra Familia is one of seven prison gangs in the state. Through top-down leadership, Nuestra Familia controls illegal activities inside several prisons, as well as most of the Nortenos gangs who operate in central California – from Yuba City to Bakersfield and from Salinas to the Sierra foothills. Through links to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, these gangs move drugs, guns and human beings across the border and into communities throughout California.

The California Department of Justice, Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team (UNET) and the San Jose Regional Office were the lead investigative agencies and were supported by the Gilroy Police Department, California Highway Patrol, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, and the United States Attorney’s Office – Northern District.